Sun Rises On Tequila`s Popularity

Mexican Export Shows Spirited Growth In U.s. Market

The meaning has been obscured in the passing of time, but this old building, just a few blocks from the town`s center, could serve as well as anyplace as the shrine for the United States` margarita lovers.

It`s on this very site that Don Jose Cuervo-yes, there once was one-started the tequila-making business in 1795, backed by a royal decree from the king of Spain.

Almost 200 years later, Cuervo`s beverage, originally Mexican and, by law and treaty, exclusively Mexican, has never been more popular. In recent years, it`s become the fastest-growing distilled spirit in the United States.

Americans may shy away from other hard liquors, but they`ve been drinking 3 to 4 percent more tequila in each of the last few years. Europe is developing a taste for it, too, emerging as the industry`s fastest-growing market. Even at home, tequila may be regaining favor, now that Mexicans have money in their pockets after a long and nasty recession.

With all this, it`s no wonder the tequila makers are smiling. Ramon Yanez Mutio, secretary to the board of the Chamber of Tequila Producers, an industry group in Guadalajara, reports the producers are coming off their best year ever, producing 16.6 million gallons and exporting 11.1 million gallons. The future looks so bright that each year the industry plants 10 percent more acreage of the slow-growing blue agave, the sword-bladed desert plant that gives tequila its taste.

All sing along now, ``Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine . . .``

Never in his wildest dreams could Cuervo have imagined his name would someday blare from jukeboxes and car radios. Yet, it`s entirely fitting that this name should be the most famous in tequila, the industry, and in Tequila, the town.

Jose Maria Guadalupe de Cuervo, living off the fat of land granted his family for managing the parish church, first distilled an alcoholic beverage from the region`s blue agave, calling it ``vino mescal de tequila,`` or mescal wine from Tequila.

The way the story`s told in and around Tequila, his claim to fame is one of those happy instances of cultural fusion: A rather bland native drink extracted from the blue agave was spiced up by the art of distilling, brought to the New World with the Spanish conquest.

And so it was that an obscure Mexican town, named after a long-vanished Indian tribe and nestled at the foot of the volcanic Tequila Mountain, became synonymous with an 80-proof (usually) liquor that, all shook up with lime juice and orange-flavored liqueur, makes margaritas a must in Mexican restaurants.

It`s fitting, too, that Tequila, a town of 20,000 about 40 miles northwest of Guadalajara, remains the hub of the business. Call it the real

``Margaritaville,`` if Jimmy Buffett doesn`t mind. Eleven of Mexico`s 23 tequila producers operate distilleries in Tequila, with the rest doing their business in towns not far away. Nearby fields abound with rows of blue agave, which finds the acidic, silicate-based volcanic soils surrounding the mountain very much to its liking.

Aside from trinkets for the tourist trade, Tequila, the town, still carries the charm of old Mexico, with a slow pace, buildings in Spanish colonial style, the church still towering over everything else around.

As for tequila, the beverage, margarita-lovers can try to remember this:

- It can be produced only in the Mexican state of Jalisco and parts of three neighboring states, an area within 100 miles of Tequila. The

``denomination of origin`` rule rests in Mexican law and international treaty, much as the United States protects its bourbon whiskey and France protects its cognac. The Mexican government vigorously defends the tequila

``property right`` under international copyright laws.

French champagne, by the way, doesn`t enjoy the benefit of denomination of origin in the United States, so ``the bubbly`` can be made at wineries in New York and California. The French aren`t pleased.

- Along with denomination of origin come strict quality standards, written into Mexican law in the 1970s. Each batch of tequila gets tested by the company, the Chamber of Tequila Producers and the government. Using modern laboratory equipment, they check for chemical composition, purity, flavor, scent, color and alcohol content.

- Tequila made a cash crop out of what scientists call the ``agave tequilana Weber, blue variety,`` a member of a versatile plant family that provides fibers for rope in the Yucatan. The blue agave`s fibers, however, are too short for making hemp. It looks like a cactus, but botanists say it`s part of the lily family.

- Mexican tequila exports find their way to 60 countries, but the United States still takes 90 percent of it. Most of the tequila goes north at 110 proof in tank trucks, not bottles. The reason is money as much as anything: It saves on freight costs and tariffs.

In the United States, tequila makers still see room to grow: Despite its rising popularity, the beverage commands just 3 percent of the market for distilled spirits.